# JR's Complete Guide to Habanos



## RJT (Feb 12, 2005)

I got this book the other day and I will say it is well worth the money. For $4.95 with any purchase you cant go wrong. For the most part it is simply a soft back book of most of the current Habanos and their sizes available from Cuba. Not a ton of info but lots of pictures. Great to have on hand.

http://www.jrcigars.com/index.cfm?page=accessories_detail&ItemCode=guide&type=SPO


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## daviddunn (Sep 26, 2006)

Thanks for the heads up, that's a good looking book.


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## One Lonely Smoker (Jan 21, 2005)

How quickly they forget. I have sworn off of any further giving of money to Lew Rothman after his unceremonious blabbling of the secret life of the Habanos orderers. Anyone remember how he reacted when all the Havana smokers threw a fit about the article he claims not to have written in that magazine he claimed not to have any control over. F Lew Rothman. and F his products and F JRCigar.


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## Boston_Dude05 (Oct 10, 2006)

Interesting book for a NC source, but then again you can be MRN at CI. I hardly find the smokes I want over at JRs though.


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## RJT (Feb 12, 2005)

One Lonely Smoker said:


> How quickly they forget. I have sworn off of any further giving of money to Lew Rothman after his unceremonious blabbling of the secret life of the Habanos orderers. Anyone remember how he reacted when all the Havana smokers threw a fit about the article he claims not to have written in that magazine he claimed not to have any control over. F Lew Rothman. and F his products and F JRCigar.


Yea I remember that. It hasn't slowed me down nor have I heard of it causing any troubles in general for anyone. Did I like it? No but, buying Cubans has been talked about by a bunch of people all over the net and in articles. Either way, the book is a decent book.


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## JJG (Oct 16, 2006)

JR sent me a copy free with box purchase. I think it's just the regular catalogue published by Habanos SA. Not much information but I enjoy all the cigar pictures.


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## IHT (Dec 27, 2003)

One Lonely Smoker said:


> How quickly they forget. I have sworn off of any further giving of money to Lew Rothman after his unceremonious blabbling of the secret life of the Habanos orderers. Anyone remember how he reacted when all the Havana smokers threw a fit about the article he claims not to have written in that magazine he claimed not to have any control over. F Lew Rothman. and F his products and F JRCigar.


:tpd: :tpd: :tpd:

:fu Lew!!


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## croatan (Mar 23, 2005)

One Lonely Smoker said:


> How quickly they forget. I have sworn off of any further giving of money to Lew Rothman after his unceremonious blabbling of the secret life of the Habanos orderers. Anyone remember how he reacted when all the Havana smokers threw a fit about the article he claims not to have written in that magazine he claimed not to have any control over. F Lew Rothman. and F his products and F JRCigar.


Exactly. He hasn't gotten a penny from me since.


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## MoTheMan (May 24, 2003)

Hmm! Pretty curious how the book turns out.

As for JR, and his overly aggressive marketing tatics, and lack of respect for fellow BOTL's/SOTL's . . . :fu

Now here's a nice link with all the pretty pictures!! http://cubancigarwebsite.com/index.htm


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## NCRadioMan (Feb 28, 2005)

MoTheMan said:


> As for JR, and his overly aggressive marketing tatics, and lack of respect for fellow BOTL's/SOTL's . . . :fu


And he wants to be my habanos dealer when/if the embargo is lifted. Riiiiggghhhtttt! 

Another :fu Lew!


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## burninator (Jul 11, 2006)

MoTheMan said:


> Hmm! Pretty curious how the book turns out.
> 
> As for JR, and his overly aggressive marketing tatics, and lack of respect for fellow BOTL's/SOTL's . . . :fu
> 
> Now here's a nice link with all the pretty pictures!! http://cubancigarwebsite.com/index.htm


:tpd:My favorite reference.


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## dayplanner (Dec 11, 1997)

One Lonely Smoker said:


> How quickly they forget. I have sworn off of any further giving of money to Lew Rothman after his unceremonious blabbling of the secret life of the Habanos orderers. Anyone remember how he reacted when all the Havana smokers threw a fit about the article he claims not to have written in that magazine he claimed not to have any control over. F Lew Rothman. and F his products and F JRCigar.


Could not have said it better myself. [email protected] Lew! :fu


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## One Lonely Smoker (Jan 21, 2005)

carbonbased_al said:


> Could not have said it better myself. [email protected] Lew! :fu


And don't get me wrong, I was a HUUUUGE Lew fan for years and years and years. His outlook on things, his crazy-ass writing about cigars that have no
real intrinsic identity. His prices. His SUPER DUPER stores. But that one thing pissed it all away.


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## MoTheMan (May 24, 2003)

One Lonely Smoker said:


> And don't get me wrong, I was a HUUUUGE Lew fan for years and years and years. His outlook on things, his crazy-ass writing about cigars that have no
> real intrinsic identity. His prices. His SUPER DUPER stores. But that one thing pissed it all away.


Me too. Was a big fan of Lew myself. Visited his original store (which was down the street from Nat Sherman) in Manhattan as well as 3 of his newer stores there, his Selma, NC, store, and two of his Jersey stores.

Just got tired of all his ranting about how wonderful a new cigar of his was, about how some of his lines wre the best of their kind, etc... One thing he is is a real showman, promoter. He works his staff unforgiving hours, doesn't pay great, and unfortunately, a lot of his cheaper products are cheaper simply because they're made of lesser quality stuff.

Send me to Holt's, CI, Famous, of many other legit dealers. I'm willing to pay $1, nay, $10 more per box to feel the guarantee that what I just bought is the best of their kind out there.


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## Boston_Dude05 (Oct 10, 2006)

Kind of interesting to see how they are positioning themselves to be an authority on ISOMs, even printing books out on the subject already and spending money.


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## LeafHog (Feb 11, 2004)

Boston_Dude05 said:


> Kind of interesting to see how they are positioning themselves to be an authority on ISOMs, even printing books out on the subject already and spending money.


Altadis owns JR Cigar & 50% of Habanos SA. Think there might be a plan?


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## Boston_Dude05 (Oct 10, 2006)

LeafHog said:


> Altadis owns JR Cigar & 50% of Habanos SA. Think there might be a plan?


That would definitely explain it. They must think the embargo might lift in the near-future, at least have a small probability. It's anyone's guess, but with oil now found off of that little island, some big companies will be lobbying to trade there I bet.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fort...3/19/8402339/index.htm?postversion=2007030709


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## hamncheese (Oct 5, 2006)

Boston_Dude05 said:


> Kind of interesting to see how they are positioning themselves to be an authority on ISOMs, even printing books out on the subject already and spending money.


Especially since he puts out catalogs with ads like "Cuban cigars are nothing like they used to be since so and so left the island with all of his rolling skills blah blah blah blah..."


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## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

I stopped in Burlington NC this weekend to check out JR's joint. I did buy some Magic Mountians. But my god, what a freeking dump. This place looked like a 99cents store piloted by the front row at a Willie Nelson concert. I was almost scared to touch anything. Oh well those Mancini's rock. Your right Lew is a douchbag, but he knows how to run a dawg and pony show.


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## HeavySmoke (Apr 9, 2006)

:2 I totally disagree. This book would only be great if you didn't want to spend the money to buy a copy of MRN's encyclopedia. I am not sure why the book is called the "Complete Guide". I noticed that EL and Reserva releases were not included in the brand line ups. Secondly there are no tasting notes. I guess for five bucks its nice to have some additional color pictures. Just my :2 .


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## RJT (Feb 12, 2005)

HeavySmoke said:


> :2 I totally disagree. This book would only be great if you didn't want to spend the money to buy a copy of MRN's encyclopedia. I am not sure why the book is called the "Complete Guide". I noticed that EL and Reserva releases were not included in the brand line ups. Secondly there are no tasting notes. I guess for five bucks its nice to have some additional color pictures. Just my :2 .


I never said it was the best book or anything like that. I just said it is worth the $5.00 and not much more. :ss


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## HeavySmoke (Apr 9, 2006)

RJT said:


> I never said it was the best book or anything like that. I just said it is worth the $5.00 and not much more. :ss


Never said you did. :tu


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## RJT (Feb 12, 2005)

HeavySmoke said:


> Never said you did. :tu


:ss


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## Ivory Tower (Nov 18, 2005)

I can't tell what Lew did that was so bad from reading these posts. Can someone spell it out a little more clearly so that I can be in on this?


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## Lumpold (Apr 28, 2005)

I believe Lew wrote an article explaining how many people broke the law and imported cuban cigars into the US... I'm not too sure exactly, but I think he basically 'blew the whistle' on it, making the risks many people take far greater. And I'd be fairly certain Mr Rothman is one of those people....


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## tnip23 (Oct 31, 2006)

One Lonely Smoker said:


> How quickly they forget. I have sworn off of any further giving of money to Lew Rothman after his unceremonious blabbling of the secret life of the Habanos orderers. Anyone remember how he reacted when all the Havana smokers threw a fit about the article he claims not to have written in that magazine he claimed not to have any control over. F Lew Rothman. and F his products and F JRCigar.


where is this article? i either got into habanos after it was written or missed it entirely. anyone have a link? i still buy from jr's now and then and would like to see if i have reason to have the same disdain for them as a number of you have.


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## Cigar Jockey (Feb 12, 2006)

It was in Cigar Magazine.


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## Boston_Dude05 (Oct 10, 2006)

Cigar Jockey said:


> It was in Cigar Magazine.


Possible to post the article?


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## MoTheMan (May 24, 2003)

Boston_Dude05 said:


> Possible to post the article?


First or second issue, I think. Been looking for it but no luck so far!


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## Thurm15 (Jan 28, 2005)

MoTheMan said:


> First or second issue, I think. Been looking for it but no luck so far!


It's in the Fall of 2005 Catalog...l mean Magazine . Gerry Cooney is on the cover and the title of the article is "Cuban Cigar Crisis" by Tom "Big Mouth" Zarecki. 
It's a pretty lame read if you ask me but, Unfortunately it brought to light the fact that some folks in the US of A were violating the Embargo on Cuba and having Cigars shipped in from different countries around the world. It also talks about different shipping methods and how "shocking" it was that this was going on.

Bottom line it was bad press for the Havana Lover.


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